After a Pre-Nationals team title moved Colorado to the No. 1 ranking, the Buffaloes had the luxury of defending their 2012 Pac-12 championship at the familiar Coal Creek Golf Course in Louisville, Colo. But even with that advantage, Colorado’s 28-point team total against quality squads from Oregon and Stanford was an impressive defense of their top ranking. Oregon freshman Edward Cheserek continued his remarkable fall campaign by winning the 8K race in 24:36, with Stanford’s Jim Rosa turning in his finest collegiate performance to date to nab runner-up honors in 24:42. Colorado put the next three across: Blake Theroux in third (24:47), Connor Winter fourth (24:49) and Ben Saarel fifth (24:53). The other two Buffalo scorers, Pierce Murphy in seventh (25:00) and Ammar Moussa in ninth (25:15), gave Colorado a top five spread of just 28 seconds. Runner-up Oregon, currently ranked No. 4 nationally, performed well with 54 points and as did third-place Stanford, ranked No. 20, with 79.

Colorado’s top finisher Theroux was full of praise for his teammates. “We are really proud of our tight pack through every race, especially today,” the junior said after the race. “I know when I was running the first half of the race, I saw Morgan, I saw Connor, I saw Pierce, and that just gets me fired up, so we always just want to stay as a pack, but today especially.”

The No. 12 Arkansas Razorbacks slipped six spots in the rankings after a seventh-place showing at the Wisconsin Invitational, but their impressive run in Gainesville will likely see the Razorbacks move back up a few notches. Scoring 31 points, Arkansas was led by Kemoy Campbell well out front, as the senior rolled to a fast 22:58.73 win over the 8K course. The next two across the line were Campbell’s teammates Stanley Kebenei (23:40.12) and Solomon Haile (24:54.87), while the other Razorback scorers were Gabe Gonzales in 10th (24:13.43) and Cale Wallace in 15th (24:25.18). Runner-up Florida was well back with 96 while Georgia finished third with 101.

“This is the most important meet of the year for us,” said Chris Bucknam, Razorback head coach. “This SEC Championship, we don’t take it lightly. Yeah, we want to do well at nationals, but this is the meet that we point toward.”

The last time Indiana won the Big Ten cross country championship was in 1980, well before the Bob Kennedy era. Three-time Olympian Jim Spivey led the Hoosiers to that team victory 33 years ago, and it hasn’t happened since. The last time Wisconsin didn’t win the meet was 1998, making the 14-year run the longest in Big Ten history.

Indiana’s title drought was not expected to end this fall, although the Hoosiers attracted some early season attention by winning the team title at the Paul Short Run back on Oct. 5. The victory resulted in a bounce up to a No. 12 national ranking, but then Ron Helmer, IU head coach, made the unconventional decision of dividing his team between Pre-Nationals and the Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 19. The Hoosiers finished 21st and 17th, respectively, in those meets and saw their ranking fall to No. 24. Meanwhile, the Badgers had achieved a No. 7 ranking after finishing fourth at their home invitational, and they were favored to win a 15th consecutive Big Ten crown, with No. 16 Michigan seen as their most serious challenger.

But Indiana prevailed, as redshirt freshman Jason Crist finished fifth in 24:24.9 to lead an impressive Hoosier top five that totaled 51 points with only a 27.1-second spread. Michigan edged Wisconsin for second, 66-71. In addition to Crist, the IU scorers included Rorey Hunter in seventh (24:34.7), Carl Smith in eighth (24:34.9), Matthew Schwartzer in 10th (24:36.2) and Evan Esselink in 21st (24:52.0). With a top five composed of two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior, this Indiana outfit is one for the future—starting next month in Terre Haute.

Individual champion on the 8K course was Wisconsin freshman Malachy Schrobilgen, who ran 24:16.9 to edge Purdue sophomore Matt McClintock by 1 second. Penn State junior Matt Fischer came home third in 24:19.7.

Big 12: Oklahoma State wins as expected, Iowa State men are a surprise second

The individual and team champions here surprised no one. Texas Tech’s Kennedy Kithuka, last fall’s Big 12 and NCAA national champion, pulled away from the field early and built a 37-second lead by 5K. Kithuka increased the margin by a handful of seconds over the next 2K before relaxing a little to finish in 22:16.0, 37.9 seconds ahead of runner-up Kirubel Erassa of Oklahoma State (22:53.9). Erassa’s teammate Shadrack Kipchirchir was right there in third at 22:54.3 followed by Ryan Dohner of Texas (22:57.1) and then Oklahoma State’s third man, Thomas Farrell (23.07.1). With five in the top 12 and seven in the top 18, the Cowboys totaled 33 points captured a sixth straight conference crown.

The surprise of the meet came as unranked Iowa State occupied the runner-up spot with 77 points. Cyclone head coach Martin Smith is in his first season in Ames since arriving from Stillwater to replace Corey Ihmels last summer. His team’s unexpectedly strong performance relegated No. 29 Texas to third (80) and No. 27 Oklahoma to fourth (104).

Three-time defending champion Princeton could not capitalize on a home course advantage and lost a by eight points to No. 10 Columbia, 48-56. Unranked Dartmouth ran to a third-place finish with 64 points, well clear of No. 21 Harvard, fourth with 103, was certainly missing the services of sidelined top runner James Leakos.

It was the other half of the usual Harvard one-two punch, senior Maksim Korolev, who ran away from the pack to win the 8K race in a course record time of 23:28.2. Columbia’s Nico Composto took runner-up honors in 23:44.5, edging out Thomas Awad of Penn (23:44.8). Columbia’s John Gregorek and Daniel Everett crossed a few steps apart in fourth and fifth (23:45.0, 23:46.4) with teammates Jake Sienko and Jack Boyle taking 17th and 20th to give the Lions the narrow victory. Princeton placed all five scorers among the first 16, but with no one in the top five it was not quite good enough.